A raft of proposals that progressive and anti-incarceration activists have been pushing for will likely have to wait until next year.
Parole
Posted inIncarceration
Heart Failure: Medical Runaround Keeps Man Locked in State Prison Two Years After Being Paroled
Not only was John Teixeria granted a rare “medical parole” in January 2020 but he’s also received standard parole every six months since then. But state prison officials say they have no place to send him in his condition.
Posted inParole
Brooklyn DA Asked Cuomo to Commute Sentence for Notorious Child Molester
The plea on behalf of Nachemya Weberman, who has only served nine years of a 50-year sentence, appears to be the only time District Attorney Eric Gonzalez intervened for someone convicted of a sex crime.
Posted inJails
Big Changes to Parole Are Here. How Will ‘Less is More’ Hold Up?
New York’s major parole policy reform went into effect March 1. It aims to transform how formerly incarcerated people are treated. Here’s how it works.
Posted inParole
Another Man Died at Rikers as Lawmakers Voted on Parole Bill that Might Have Saved Him
At around 2 p.m. on Thursday, lawmakers in the state Senate began voting to overhaul New York’s parole system following years of lobbying from experts and advocates. Two hours later, a correction officer found Jose Mejia Martinez — locked up on a parole violation tied to an arrest for swiping beer — dead in his […]
Posted inJails
Parole Reform Bill Set to Pass in Albany After Rikers Deaths
State lawmakers struck a deal Tuesday to overhaul New York’s parole system to limit when formerly incarcerated people could be re-jailed. Under the “Less Is More Act,” parole officers would no longer be able to automatically toss people back into jail if they violate curfew or fail to notify their parole officers of a change […]
Posted inJails
Death of Two Men at Rikers — One Held on Shoplifting Rap — Amplifies Push to Overhaul Parole Rules
Two men locked up on low-level arrests that violated their parole — one of them a new father jailed for allegedly shoplifting — recently died behind bars on Rikers Island, THE CITY has learned. News of the deaths of Thomas Braunson III, 35, on April 19, and 45-year-old Richard Blake just 11 days later comes […]
Posted inJails
Too Many Parolees Being Sent Back to Rikers Unnecessarily, Advocates Say
When several people in a packed Bronx homeless shelter got sick with COVID-19 in early March, Levi Mitchell feared that would be his fate too. So Mitchell, 54, who was on parole, left and spent a few nights at his brother’s apartment before couch-surfing at friends’ places. But the nomadic lifestyle made it difficult for […]
Posted inParole
First Rikers Virus-Positive Fatality Was Jailed on Technicality
Need to know more about coronavirus in New York? Sign up for THE CITY’s daily morning newsletter. The first COVID-19 positive city jail inmate died in Bellevue Hospital Sunday as he awaited a hearing on a parole violation, according to multiple sources. Michael Tyson, 53, had been in city custody since Feb. 28 and initially […]
Posted inJustice
Defenders Plead for ‘Intimate’ Rikers Parole Hearings to Go to Video
Parole hearings on Rikers Island came to a halt Monday after a team of public defenders refused to attend the gatherings held in small confines that they fear could become a breeding ground for the coronavirus. There were 83 cases scheduled on Monday and most of them were delayed because attorneys refused to enter the […]